Pearl’s Hill Prison
From 1825 to 1873, Singapore was a key penal colony for convicts transported from India, Burma, Bencoolen and Penang to the Straits Settlement as the isolation and separation of ties from their homes bundled with forced labour were seen as a significant punishment at the time. With the increase in migrants in the colony, use of opium and growth of secret societies arising from racial segregation, the local penal population also grew (Pieris, 2009). Unlike the earlier Bras Basah Convict Jail which was more like an “open kampong” for transported convicts (Quek, 1983), the Pearl’s Hill civil jail was more of a “closed cage” that reflected the changing ideology in colonial administration and a greater need for surveillance (Pieris, 2009).
First built in 1847 by the superintending engineer of the Straits Settlement, Charles Edward Faber, following the designs of then government surveyor, John Turnbull Thomson, Pearl’s Hill Prison, also known as Her Majesty’s Jail, is a purpose-built civil jail constructed by transported convicts that held both European and native offenders. The original jail was a 2-storey cross-shaped brick-and-mortar building with a pitched roof and enclosed by a wall. Each floor had 10 outward facing rooms, with each room on the ground floor linked to an adjacent yard. Each set of room and yard was supposed to cater to a different category of offenders, as well as a separate set for the warders. The jailer’s room was at the centre of the cross as a panopticon to allow him surveillance of the prisoners (Pieris, 2009).
In 1879, it was decided that the Bras Basah convict jail was unsafe and unhealthy and any convicts who could not be transferred out of Singapore or given a ticket of leave would need to be moved to the Pearl’s Hill civil jail. An extension of the civil jail was designed by executive engineer and superintendent of convicts, Major John F.A. McNair who also designed the Government House (Istana) amongst others (NLB, 2016).
The original 2-storey building and its function was retained (seen in the photograph by Marjorie Doggett above) while 5 new prison blocks as well as other buildings and amenities were added in the surrounding complex, renamed as Outram Prison (Pieris, 2009). The design of the new prison was more cellular and the focus was on harsher punitive measures rather than reform by labour.
A more austere entrance gate was introduced to the complex (above) which adopted the rustication seen on the original buildings to convey an appearance of strength. With the change in ideology and the prison becoming as site of corporal punishment and even death by firing squad, the subsequent depiction of the Outram prison in media is nothing like the garden- or village-like image in what Marjorie Doggett described as the “prettier face to H.M. Prison”.
Media representations were often of the incarcerated leaving its austere entrance or more starkly of the execution outside the prison’s wall of the 47 men from the Indian 5th Light Infantry Regiment who were involved in the 1915 Singapore Mutiny. From a judicial and punitive perspective, it is probably unwise to romanticise a place of punishment and incarceration. It is no surprise then that media and visual representation of the prison had been reduced to its austere gate and wall, a fortress marked by death and punishment. Little is known or said about the inmates upon release nor the penal industries here like the government printing press operated by the inmates (NLB, 2015).
It was suggested as early as the late 1920s that the prison was located on land that was deemed too valuable for incarcerating prisoners but it wasn’t until 1963 that the government announced that Outram Prison will be redeveloped for urban renewal and public housing. Ow (1969) wrote in an unpublished dissertation on the cost-benefit analysis of the redevelopment of Outram Prison that “there is no economic justification for the redevelopment” as cost exceeds the economic benefits to be gained by the government. However, the 115 years old buildings could only be classified as “dilapidated” and needed constant repair of its grossly inadequate facilities to meet 20th century standards. In contrast, the redevelopment provided innumerable social benefits like improvement in housing condition, traffic circulation, and slum clearance which were not quantifiable yet more important than keeping an obsolete prison.
Subsequently, the Outram Park Complex was built on top of the Outram Prison in 1970. Interestingly, in its initial year, it was reported that the HDB’s “experiment to merge tourist shopping centres with housing estates” failed to attract sufficient businesses due to its “relative isolation” from the “heart of Chinatown”. It is unsurprising that the site of the austere prison opposite the general hospital was not part of the daily destinations of the Chinatown denizens.
Being the forerunner, it was interesting to also observe how lessons from Outram Park Complex might have subsequently informed the design of other mixed use developments to come. The idea of clustering and activity generating uses at the ground floor, and Singapore’s hawker culture in its “heartlands”. Many may remember the Outram Park Complex for its popular hawker stalls but these were only introduced after 1971 as a response to the poor businesses in its initial opening (Source: The Straits Times, 1971). Some how, this too was demolished in 2003, 33 years after its opening.
Today, the prison site is marked as a historic site by the National Heritage Board though with the continuous infrastructure works in the area, the area does not appear to have a physical marker to recall its history. For those born after the prison was long gone, there is however an insightful set of photographs in the National Archives of Singapore that documented the Outram prison before and during its demolition.
What is the significance of sites like the Bras Basah and Pearl’s Hill (aka Outram Prison)? In 2021, Vandana Aggarwal traced the story of Kunnuck Mistree, an Indian convict from Bencoolen who was banished to Singapore but in the end chose to stay on and accumulated wealth here which he in turn gave back to the society. Are there more stories like these? What of the “native” convicts and what stories would they tell of the early colonial port town of Singapore? How about the prisoners of war who were incarcerated in these prisons during World War II?
Despite the fact that the prison reform in 1951 sought to change the prison from a space of punishment to rehabilitation (Quek, 1983) and numerous efforts to change the stigma of the prison and ex-convicts in contemporary times, there continues to be a pervasive social imagery, media portrayal and narrative of the prison as a physical deterrence to behaviour deemed unacceptable.
Unlike in Australia where its history as a penal colony is commemorated, little in Singapore know or speaks of its past as a penal colony. One could only imagine the day when a mature Singapore society could recognise the value of its penal heritage while respecting the punitive role of the prison system.
It seems unimaginable in land scarce Singapore to keep an entire prison complex on valuable land for the purpose of incarceration but would Singapore be ready to retain a prison block for a new use? The Fremantle Prison in Australia comes to mind as it breathes a new lease of life as a youth hostel. Built in 1850, after the Pearl’s Hill Prison, it is today a World Heritage Site, together with 10 other Australian convict sites. What would it take for sites with a ‘dark’ history like prisons and hospitals to be acceptable for reuse, or even for its presence and stories to be told without worries of its past dampening the success of subsequent uses? Should we still talk about it more than 50 years after it has been wiped out from our landscape? Would it, and should it, have any significance to the current population? I, for one, would love to know more about our penal heritage.
What do you think? Please leave me a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.
References
Doggett, Marjorie (1957) “Characters of light: a guide to the buildings of Singapore” Singapore: Donald Moore
James, Lawrence (1987) “Mutiny in the British and Commonwealth Forces: 1797–1956” London: Buchan & Enright
NLB (2015) “Singapore Infopedia — Outram Prison (Pearl’s Hill Prison)” https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1742_2010-12-17.html (Last Accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
NLB (2016) “Singapore Infopedia — J. F. A. McNair” https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1708_2010-10-10.html (Last Accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
NHB (2022) “Changi Prison Gate Wall and Turrets” https://www.roots.gov.sg/places/places-landing/Places/national-monuments/changi-prison-gate-wall-and-turrets (Last Accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
Ow, Chwee Huay (1969) “Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Outram Prison Redevelopment Scheme” University of Singapore: Department of Economics, Unpublished Dissertation
Pieris, Anoma (2009) “Hidden Hands and Divided Landscapes: A Penal History of Singapore’s Plural Society” USA: University of Hawai’i Press
Quek Shi Lei (1983) “Prisons in Singapore: Changing Philosophies and Methods of Treatment” Singapore: Singapore Prison Service
SPH (1957) “Some Of The Fourteen Chinese Middle School Students Leaving Outram Prison. They Were Detained During The Recent Student Arrests. Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock (Fourth Left) Is Supervising Their Release” https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/photographs/record-details/8d384a0d-1162-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad (Last accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
The Age (2003) “Singapore reviews Changi demolition” Published on 27 September 2003 https://www.theage.com.au/world/singapore-reviews-changi-demolition-20030927-gdwf7x.html (Last accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
The New Paper (2011) “Unsettled by resettlement” Published on 22 Nov 2011 https://www.asiaone.com/print/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20111120-311629.html (Last accessed on 30 Oct 2022)
